Pumpkin Songs

The Library Lady sings The Pumpkin Song, a sweet, simple song used with success for library storytimes. She also posted pumpkin photos, including some shots of her fabulous display board. Thank you, Library Lady!

As a memory jog, Lucia sang a Jack-o-Lantern song for this blog last year. I've linked that as well.

Blue Fairy and Candle Maiden

Much of my stitching time has been focused upon custom orders, but I did have a chance to post the Blue Fairy in the shop last week:



Yesterday, I posted the Candle Maiden for Hanukkah:



In addition to everything else, I've promised to make three different doll sets for the school auction in March 2010. I'm going to have to pace myself. I used to work well under stress, but now I work best when I can get things done ahead of time. I love the feeling of having thwarted the Procrastination Imp.

Lost-o-Rhyme-o

I am not going to participate in NaNoWriMo, but I've included the link in this post in case it's useful to you. As the website explains,

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality.....Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

I am convinced I write the worst drafts in the world. (Just kidding! I'm sure yours are just as bad.) Still, I don't wish to attempt to produce volume. I like stories that don't waste words. In theory, I could winnow the words produced by a month of NaNoWriMo. I suspect that after the winnowing, I wouldn't have much left with which to work.

I want some sort of short-term writing goal, though. With that in mind, I shall start LoStoWriMo, pronounced "Lost-o-Rhyme-o." It stands for Local Story Writing Month. Every day in the month of November, I will post an original short story. Each story may be five paragraphs, two paragraphs, six words long-- who knows? I'll do it. Last weekend, when I attended an all-day storytelling workshop with Nancy Mellon and Ashley Ramsden, I found that I could tell an extemporaneous story if someone else gave me a few nouns to work with. A few years ago, I had a regular feature by which readers would give me words, and then I'd write stories inspired by them. (You may read some of them here, here, and here.

For LoStoWriMo/Lost-o-Rhyme-o, I invite you to fill the word bank for my stories. I ask that the words you submit be solid, flavorful nouns. (Nouns that are ideas are welcome, but please try to avoid the "Stump the Storyteller" mentality.)Please don't feel any obligation to leave critiques or feedback on the stories. However, if you felt compelled to leave a calling card along the lines of "Marked as read," I'd know that you stopped by, and I'd be glad.

Halloween Fairy

Have you heard of the Halloween Fairy? I first heard of her through my daughter's school. On Halloween night, after the fun of trick-or-treating is over, the child places all but a few desired pieces of candy in a basket or bowl for the Halloween Fairy to collect. In gratitude, the Halloween Fairy leaves a wonderful present (i.e. no socks or underwear unless they're on the child's wishlist).

Outside of school, most parents look at me with bemusement when I tell them about the Halloween Fairy. I can almost hear their thoughts:

Yeah, that's really cute. That may work in your Waldorf la-la land, but the Halloween Fairy would never fly with my kid.

These are the same parents whose kids faithfully put out stockings for Santa Claus long after they've discovered that there is no toe-monster, carrots do not make their hair curly and the Electoral College does not reflect the popular vote. They're gung-ho about the Easter Bunny and think the Tooth Fairy is great as long as the cash keeps coming. The Halloween Fairy deserves a chance, too.

Last year was the first time Lucia went trick-or-treating with friends. She enjoyed the pageantry of the costumes, liked the idea of getting lots of sweets, but was fine with putting out her stash for the Halloween Fairy. The next morning, she received a rhinestone tiara and the Halloween Fairy received a stomachache. This year, who knows what gift the Halloween Fairy will bring? Whatever Lucia receives in exchange for her candy will be worth the trade.

November 2, 2009 update: Here is a photo that has the wooden mushrooms and doll made by MrsBeccijo of theenchantedcupboard along with a hand-dyed silk by BeneathTheRowanTree that the Halloween Fairy left for my daughter in exchange for her candy:



Other items pictured from the NaturalKids team are the needle-felted mushroom girl by Nushkie, a wooden squirrel and crow by Mamakopp, and stitched dolls by me, Alkelda.

Melisande, Or Long and Short Division

Melisande, Or Long and Short Division, by E. Nesbit, is a literary fairy tale that incorporates mathematics. Perhaps when I made Princess Division for my Royal Math Gnomes, I unconsciously had this story in the back of my mind. Lucia enjoyed it very much. While you can read the story in its entirety, I read the story aloud from a collection called Stories for Eight Year Olds. When I was in second grade, I had a book from the same series called Stories for Seven Year Olds, which I enjoyed very much. Sara Corrin, the editor, and I seem to have similar tastes in stories, so I am going to look for her other collections available in the library.

Reaching for Exoplanets

Exoplanet photo from the Enersec website

Bede's current fascination is with exoplanets, also known as extrasolar planets. I've always been excited by the possibility of planets outside our solar system and life on those planets. Now that the scientists of planet Earth have actually discovered over 300 exoplanets with an estimated hundred billion just in the Milky Way galaxy, I don't feel elated. I'm actually a little depressed about them. Expense and duration of space-travel aside, the radiation from solar-flares make human space-travel so far out of reach.

Speaking of the duration of space-travel, is there anyway we could hurry up the wormhole technology or whatever it's going to take in order to travel great distances? We won't see proper photos of Pluto for another 5 1/2 years, but at least there's a good chance I'll see them in my lifetime.

I'm not much of a traveler here on Earth. I'd always dreamed of visiting different places, but I don't even like to drive the car over the bridge to Puget Sound's East Side. Still, there is something within that is akin to an ache for humans to travel through space. The premise of Sylvia Louise Engdahl's early books was that every civilization reached a critical point where they would choose either to focus their energies on space travel or on destroying each other. On some level, I still believe that as well.

I remember the first time I heard Carl Sagan utter the words, "The Cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be." I was eight or nine years old. At the time, I had no idea that Sagan was an atheist, and I would have been incredulous had you told me. It gave me shivers that were part expectation, part longing. When I looked at the night sky, and rather than feeling insignificant, I had a glimpse of Albert Einstein's "sensation of the mystical":

The most beautiful and most profound experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms - this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.

Since this is Poetry Friday, it is fitting to end with the two most vivid lines from the poem about the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, The Old Astronomer to His Pupil, by Sarah Williams:

Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.

Good News

Last Tuesday, I attended the local SCBWI monthly meeting to hear the witty, warm poet and social-media maven Gregory Pinkus of GottaBook and The Happy Accident. Between the mini-session with Martha Brockenbrough, who wrote Things That Make Us [Sic] and Pinkus' talk, there were a number of announcements including the regularly featured "Good News." I used to attend SCBWI meetings on a regular basis, and heard everything from "My illustrations are being used in a textbook" to the quietly pleased "My book just won the Caldecott Honor."

As I listened, I thought, "Why don't I bring up more good news on my blog?" While I can't match the sheer joy that Happy Stuff brings to her love of everyday/special things, I can at least cheer for other people and celebrate the blessings in my life. So, here goes:

*To start things off, I am thrilled that Mare's War by Tanita S. Davis has been nominated for the American Library Association's Best Books for Young Adults 2010 list. I've read the book and I really enjoyed it. It's part modern-day road trip, part historical fiction about the present-day main character's grandmother who lied about her age in order to join the World War II African American battalion of the Women’s Army Corps.

*Last Thursday morning, while browsing the Border's bookstore at the airport, I began to exit when I did an about-face. In the front of the store on display were copies of How Not To Make a Wish by Mindy Klasky. I exclaimed, "I know her! I was in library school with her!" At the time we were in library school together, she was working on a novel while getting her law-library degree and working full-time (she was already a lawyer). I knew she had published some novels since then, but to my chagrin, I hadn't read any of her books. I am going to amend that oversight soon.

*I have started reading the blog of Rainmom, a college friend with two children, one of whom has autism. We haven't talked directly since college, but I've been able to read some of her writings over the years. I was heartened to read this post about the misperceptions of autism and affection. Like I said in my previous post, we don't know yet what Lucia's diagnosis will be, but if it's on the autism spectrum, I feel as if I can deal with it better knowing that a person can be both autistic and affectionate. How odd is that of me to think thus? Lucia told me today, "I do not have autism". I told her that whatever we found out would not change who she was, what she liked to do, but could enable us to get certain services that would be helpful to her.

By the way, Lucia has announced several times, "I am not afraid of dogs anymore." She actually IS still afraid enough to lurch away from us to run from dogs, but she wants so badly not to be afraid. She has it in her mind that if she can overcome her fear of dogs, we can go to Disneyland (upgraded in her mind from that mouse-owned pizza parlor that fills both Bede and me with trepidation).

*October 24-25 will be a weekend of storytelling workshops with Nancy Mellon through the Sound Circle Center. I'm going to both the all-day workshop on Saturday with Nancy Mellon and Ashley Ramsden and the 4 hour workshop on Sunday that's just with Mellon. I am so grateful to be able to participate in a weekend of professional and personal development with a master storyteller. I've read a number of her books, but have never before heard her speak. Some of my friends have taken workshops with her before, and have assured me that she is wonderful.

Noodle Pots and No-Boundaries

The House of Glee has returned from a trip back East in which we celebrated the wedding of my cousin to a lovely woman my brother and I refer to as our "cousin-in-law". The wedding took place outside on my aunt and uncle's Pennsylvania farm. Although it was chilly at times, the sun shone on the wedding day, and afterward, we had the reception in a tent. The day after, we enjoyed a picnic with the local and out-of-town guests.

I return to this blog wondering what I am going to do with it. I wish I were still anonymous, but perhaps the fact that I am not protects me from writing something I would regret publishing later. I can still share stories and songs with you, but I am always going to be holding something of myself back. I don't want to overshare, but there are times when writing about some of my struggles could be of benefit to others. I'm going to take a risk and see if it's true.

Here is what happened at the airport yesterday:

While we were waiting to board our connecting flight, Lucia struck up a conversation with a friendly passenger. The passenger (whom I will name No-Boundaries) told me that she worked with autistic children. That's great, I thought. I figured that she picked up on some of my daughter's mannerisms and could tell that there was something going on that had not yet been diagnosed. Then, she turned to my daughter and asked, "Are you autistic?" Lucia responded with, "What's autistic?"

As No-Boundaries began to explain to Lucia, I shook my head and explained to No-Boundaries that we were waiting for a diagnosis from a professional who would give a full-spectrum of tests. No-Boundaries overrode me to say loudly that Lucia probably had Asperger syndrome and expounded on all the symptoms that people with autism and Asperger syndrome had that Lucia shared.

I wish that I had just told No-Boundaries that it was inappropriate for her to ask Lucia (or any child!) if s/he had autism and not to diagnose my child in the airport, thank you. I was cautious about calling any more attention to this one-sided conversation so I restated that we had been counseled to avoid labels until Lucia received the full-spectrum of tests. No-Boundaries' husband piped up, "And you will get the full-spectrum. You're going to miss those questions when [your daughter] becomes withdrawn."

Someone else would have had sharp, witty responses that would have silenced No-Boundaries and her husband. (Maybe someone else would have knocked them in the teeth, too.) However, there was no winning in this situation. All they could register was the sound of their own voices. Then, No-Boundaries said goodbye to Lucia and told us what a wonderful child we had.

Thanks, lady.

It was obvious that No-Boundaries had issues of her own. I was incredulous that someone who claimed to love working with autistic children and could spout off a pat definition of autism in terms of how it related to social interactions could have no sense of emotional intelligence or sensitivity awareness. I had an armload of armchair diagnoses for her, too.

We don't know yet what Lucia's specific diagnosis is. We are committed to helping her through her challenges. It may well be that Lucia helps Bede and me through our challenges as well-- namely, learning how to tell busybodies to go sink their heads in pots of noodles.

I'll admit that I just edited myself. My original sentence was much ruder.

Blog Break: October 5-12

I'm going to take a break for a week. I plan to start anew on October 13, and bring back more stories and songs to this blog.

The Patron Saint of In-a-Hurry

I had this post in draft form from last October. I still get a kick out of all the patron saints for different challenges and afflictions. For similar reasons, I enjoyed Justine Larbalestier's How to Ditch Your Fairy.

***

Bede sent me a link to a BoingBoing article about St. St. Expedite, an apocryphal figure who is the patron of people who need help in a hurry. I had only known him as the patron saint of postal workers from a medallion I received as a prize during a production of Late Nite Catechism.

Honey and Rainbow Elementals

Happy October! In a few days, Fire, the companion novel to Graceling by Kristin Cashore will finally be released. That's reason enough to celebrate.

I'm also grateful for my regular bookstore gigs. As far as birthday parties go, the year 2009 has been sparse for me. I don't know how other local performers have fared, but in terms of library performances, I've noticed that the majority of entertainers have CDs or books that can (in theory) be borrowed from the library.

You can't borrow my little dolls from the library, but I hope you admire them anyway. Here are two sets that I've placed in the shop recently:


Honey Elemental inspired by LoneStarMa


Rainbow Mother with Cloud Child

On the Alkelda: Dolls for Storytelling Facebook group I've posted some photos of the first Nativity set I'm working on. You don't have to be a "fan" or even a member of Facebook in order to see the photos.

My daughter is home from school for the third day in a row. She has one of those pesky low fevers that bars her from going to school but isn't enough to tire her out enough for her to take a nap. I decided that since I wasn't going to achieve much in the way of sewing or storytelling prep, I would do some deep cleaning and organizing of the kitchen. When I was done, I asked her to take a look at the results of several hours' work. She peered at the shelves and said, "It's not very interesting."

That statement sums up centuries, yea, millenia, of public opinion on housework.